Co-written by Chloe and Krista
Just your typical Tuesday afternoon English Conversation class. As a background for those reading, last month we taught English, public speaking, and music at an international seminary in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We taught English in three different parts: conversation, grammar, and vocab. Our conversation class was where we taught them to, well, ya know, converse.
One day we were teaching the first and second year students, which means we had some who’ve been speaking English for two years and some who’ve been speaking English for two months. So we decided to open up class with a question game, thanks to @Pinterest for letting us amateur English teachers feel like we can actually do something. The aim of the game was really to get the students talking, because we didn’t go in with any expectations of what the lesson would look like. The questions varied from light and fun to more personal and in depth.
We wanted to highlight some of the examples from that day—
What would you do if you found a diamond ring?
Soka: I would keep it to give to my parents.
What would you do if you found $10 in the street?
Chariny: I would find the person who lost the $10 and give it back to them.
If you were the leader of Cambodia what would you change?
Sambo: I would first change myself. Because if I was a bad person I would make a bad leader. I would also make sure there were more policemen at markets to protect people who couldn’t protect themselves. I would create job centres for women and children who have no money, and provide more help for amputees.
*Part of Cambodian culture is deeply rooted in the aftermath of the recent genocide. It’s estimated that nearly 2 million people were killed between 1975-1979, and countless more were severely injured, leading to a high population of amputees.
Another side note: when asked if he could travel anywhere as leader, Sambo said he’d travel to visit his mom because he misses her.
If you saw someone stealing something in a shop, what would you do?
Sokorn: I would go up to that person and say that I saw them steal.
Chloe: What if that didn’t work?
Sokorn: I would ask, “Why do you need to steal? Are you hungry? Do you have no money?” If they were stealing because they were hungry I would give them money.
Needless to say we were left speechless by the quality and character behind their answers. How different our cultures are, where we would so often respond to these questions with jokes or feigned egotism, they responded with genuine kindness. We sat as their teachers, but learned so much from those we were supposed to be teaching.
We could have sat and discussed anything that day; the weather, comedic pipe dreams, modes of transportation, food. Instead these seventeen-year-olds opened up in conversation about character, family, culture, and morality.
Some days in Cambodia are spent in fun and light-hearted community; other days are spent talking about one another’s radical transformation through Christ; and other days are being led by subtle promptings into genuine conversation without really trying. What a joy to have a month learning so much from our so-called “students”; let’s hope as their “teachers” they learned something from us too.
PS – Sokorn later clarified that he would only ask if she was hungry if she was a beautiful woman… But the initial sentiment was still gold.
